by Ken Albala
Professor Albala attempts to cover all of human history through food. His focus is Western culture and Europe, but there are survey lectures for areas in Asia and Africa as well. In the later lectures, there is a definite bias toward local food and the kind of farm and table philosophy espoused by Wendell Berry and others, a bias that happens to coincide with my own. The last lecture, where Professor Albala predicts future movements in food, was my least favorite. Perhaps that's just because I don't want all his predictions to come to fruition.
In the video version of this series, he makes a few recipes. These are less interesting on audio, though they tended to be small parts of the lectures. I think all of the recipes are included in the PDF of the course guidebook. (These seem to be available on only some phones or apps, but they should always show up in your library on the actual Audible website.)
As I was listening, I found many connections and relationships with the high school coursework we are using, including that from Mater Amabilis™. I think a high school student (there are some references to mature themes, though none I remember being central to the ideas) could listen to this course from beginning to end as part of a high school course. It's a little short by itself to be an elective, not quite enough hours even for a quarter-credit.
Many of the lectures, however, would be a fun addition or supplement to other courses. Here are some ideas I had while listening.
European History - Many of these would be enjoyable and give a welcome respite from the heavy reading of Europe: A History.
- LECTURE 2: What Early Agriculturalists Ate
- LECTURE 3: Egypt and the Gift of the Nile
- LECTURE 5: Classical Greece—Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade
- LECTURE 6: The Alexandrian Exchange and the Four Humors
- LECTURE 9: Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome
- LECTURE 11: Europe’s Dark Ages and Charlemagne
- LECTURE 13: Carnival in the High Middle Ages
- LECTURE 15: A Renaissance in the Kitchen
- LECTURE 17: 1492—Globalization and Fusion Cuisines
- LECTURE 18: 16th-Century Manners and Reformation Diets
- LECTURE 19: Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age
- LECTURE 20: The Birth of French Haute Cuisine
- LECTURE 21: Elizabethan England, Puritans, Country Food
- LECTURE 22: Dutch Treat—Coffee, Tea, Sugar, Tobacco
- LECTURE 26: Eating in the Early Industrial Revolution
British History
- LECTURE 21: Elizabethan England, Puritans, Country Food
- LECTURE 25: Colonial Cookery in North America (or American History)
- LECTURE 26: Eating in the Early Industrial Revolution
- LECTURE 30: Food Imperialism around the World
Geography of Africa
- LECTURE 3: Egypt and the Gift of the Nile
- LECTURE 23: African and Aboriginal Cuisines
Geography of Asia
- LECTURE 4: Ancient Judea—From Eden to Kosher Laws
- LECTURE 7: Ancient India—Sacred Cows and Ayurveda
- LECTURE 8: Yin and Yang of Classical Chinese Cuisine
- LECTURE 12: Islam—A Thousand and One Nights of Cooking
- LECTURE 24: Edo, Japan—Samurai Dining and Zen Aesthetics
Geography of the Americas
- LECTURE 16: Aztecs and the Roots of Mexican Cooking
- LECTURE 25: Colonial Cookery in North America
Geography of Australasia
- LECTURE 23: African and Aboriginal Cuisines
Health
- LECTURE 27: Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians
- LECTURE 29: Big Business and the Homogenization of Food
- LECTURE 32: War, Nutritionism, and the Great Depression
- LECTURE 33: World War II and the Advent of Fast Food
Economics
- LECTURE 29: Big Business and the Homogenization of Food
- LECTURE 32: War, Nutritionism, and the Great Depression
I have received nothing in exchange for this post of my honest opinions. Links to Amazon are affiliate links. I purchased this audiobook from Audible.
